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Home Office tightens rules on student visa refusals

Another tightening of student visa rules is being viewed as evidence that the Home Office is winning its “war of attrition” over its Whitehall opponents on the issue, as well as heralding a “sudden death” threat for smaller universities.

At present, universities would lose highly trusted sponsor status if more than 20 per cent of the students they offer places to are refused visas. But that threshold will be cut to 10 per cent in November “after a three-month transitional period for colleges and universities to re-examine their admissions procedures before offering individuals places”, Number 10 said in a statement.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “This latest announcement will add to the perception that Britain is slowly closing the door. It suggests the Home Office is winning the war of attrition against those in Westminster and Whitehall who want a different approach…including parts of the Treasury, the Foreign Office, BIS [Department for Business, Innovation and Skills] and the Number 10 Policy Unit, not to mention half a dozen select committees.”

A Universities UK spokesman said it was “important to note” that a student visa refusal “does not always equate to a deliberate attempt to abuse the immigration rules”.

“It can relate to a genuine mistake by the applicant in failing to provide the precise documentation…problems that could be addressed easily,” he said. “Using visa refusal rates as a measure to determine the future of a sponsor’s HTS status is a blunt mechanism and could also have a disproportionate impact on smaller institutions.”

He added: “For such a system to work, the Home Office must improve the feedback to universities on student visa refusals to ensure they can tackle any applications that are genuinely bogus and monitor their performance rigorously.”

Dominic Scott, chief executive of the UK Council for International Student Affairs, said the move was unlikely to have a major effect on most universities but would “make some of them much more cautious and that will mean that some theoretically good students might not get offers”. He added that the announcement might affect “students who may not sit in Mr Cameron’s description of the ‘brightest and the best’”, but who nonetheless do well in UK universities.

However, for small and specialist institutions “it will be really quite challenging”, continued Mr Scott, given that a 10 per cent threshold could equate to a handful of refusals putting their licence in jeopardy. For such institutions “this looks like sudden death”, he said.

Reader's comments (3)

What is happening in the Anglo world? Is this something to do with pressure created by zero population growthers such as Population Matters running scare campaigns through media and political classes to inform society? One of the foci or proxy issues they continually push is the NOM net overseas migration data i.e. those who reside temporarily in UK for 12+ months, such as students, who are then described as 'immigrants' in the media and presumed to be permanent immigrants by society along with media and politicians.
If the British International Education (& Australian/US) sector wishes to prosper it could start with educating the population through mainstream media explaining the benefist ofinternational education..... unless of course it also has some attitude towards 'foreigners'?

How can it make sense for the government to insist that universities do exactly the job the government is supposed to do (check people for their visas) in exactly the same way? The universities should decide which candidates are worthy of an attempt at a degree, and the government should figure out which are security risks, and neither should expect the other to do their job or come to the same conclusions.
If this policy isn't revoked, then university administrators will force academics not to take risks on students from exactly the kinds of countries we need more academic and intellectual bonds with.

Completely agree Joanna, I am myself not from the UK, and although I was granted a visa several years ago, I had to get advice from an immigration solicitor in Birmingham for my little brother to optimise his chances of getting one as well... not only this could disadvantage potential students, but could most definitely put a strain on universities themselves, as well as the country's talents pool.